Grambank - Feature GB075: Are there postpositions?

Feature GB075: Are there postpositions?

Patrons: Jakob Lesage

Description ⇫

Summary

A postposition indicates the relationship of a noun phrase to the verb in a clause. This relationship could be circumstantial (e.g. locative, temporal, etc.) or a core argument function (S, A or P). A postposition follows the noun phrase it occurs with. Enclitics with this function count as postpositions in Grambank. This means that phonological boundness is not relevant to this question. Circumpositions count as both postpositions and prepositions. Inpositions (which occur somewhere in between words in a noun phrase) do not count as postpositions. Nouns that express the function of an adposition in a possessive construction (e.g. inside of the car to mean 'in the car') only count if they are visibly grammaticalized and no longer fully behave like nouns. If there is only one postposition, this is enough for a 1 here.

Procedure

Code 1 if the grammar mentions free postpositions or postpositional enclitics in the language and there is no evidence (in examples) that the author's definition of 'postposition' conflicts with the one used in Grambank. If the postpositions are phonologically bound, mention this in the comment column.
Code 1 if you find examples of free postpositions or postpositional enclitics in the language. If the postpositions are phonologically bound, mention this in the comment column.
Code 0 if a grammar mentions free prepositions or prepositional proclitics, but no free postpositions or postpositional enclitics.
Code 0 if a grammar mentions that there are no postpositions in the language.
Code 0 if a comprehensive grammar does not mention any postpositions in its sections on noun phrases, argument marking, adverbials, or adpositions.
Code ? if you suspect that the grammar may have missed that there are postpositions in the language (e.g. because it is very short or does not have a comprehensive description of the noun phrase).

Examples

Lagwan (ISO 639-3: kot, Glottolog: lagw1237)

Lagwan is coded 1 in Grambank. Lukas (1936: 56) attests two postpositions: temporal ká and fa 'except'. He gives only the following examples, from which it is impossible to check whether they are postpositions or suffixes, but as there is no evidence that Lukas' definition of postposition conflicts with ours elsewhere, this is not considered a problem.

fázàr         ká
early.morning TEMP
‘in the early morning’ Lukas (1936: 56)

méa    ɣo-ne      zumi-a-tan    šēn      kii   fa
people city-PROX  food-GEN-3PL  have.not fish  except
‘The people of this city have no food but fish.’ Lukas (1936: 56)

(my glosses; *ɣo-ne* is erroneously represented as *ro-ne* in the original example)

Kwini (ISO 639-3: gww, Glottolog: kwin1241)

In Kwini, case relations are marked with bound morphemes (in a morphosyntactic sense, but not in a phonological sense) that are at times attached to the end of the noun phrase, where they qualify as enclitics and thus postpositions, and at other times attached to the initial word of the noun phrase, where they qualify as inpositions (McGregor 1993: 36-41). Because they behave as postpositions at least in some cases, Kwini is coded 1 for the purpose of Grambank. The following is a list of postpositions found in Kwini, adopted from McGregor (1993: 36):

ngindalu   LOC(ative)
gu         DAT(ive)
yanga      ABL(ative)
we         PURP(osive)
nyine      INST(rumental)
gude       COM(itative)
nangga     GEN(itive)

Siwi (ISO 639-3: siz, Glottolog: siwi1239)

Souag (2010: 306) states that "Siwi (...) is exclusively prepositional", which is sufficient to code it 0.

Baharna Arabic (ISO 639-3: abv, Glottolog: baha1259)

In a sketch of Baharna Arabic, Holes (2006: 241–255) lists many prepositions but no postpositions. This is sufficient to assume an absence of postpositions in this language. Baharna Arabic is coded 0.

Panamint (ISO 639-3: par, Glottolog: pana1305)

Panamint is a good example of a language with inpositions (cf. Dryer 2013), which is coded 0 here. Inpositions in Panamint come right after the noun, before other nominal modifiers, as is illustrated below for tukkwantü 'under', which comes in between a pronoun and an attributive numeral, and for ma 'from', which comes in between a noun and an adjective (Dayley 1989: 257). These examples do not count as prepositions or postpositions in this survey.

Mümmi      tukkwantü  pahittünna.
you.all-O  under      three
‘It's under you three’ (Dayley 1989: 257)

Ohipim  ma   nati’iwantünna  tiyaitaiha  satü.
cold    from mean-O          died        that
‘He died from a mean cold’ (Dayley 1989: 257)

Elsewhere, Panamint has postpositions which do trigger a 1 for this feature (Dayley 1989: 14).

References

Dayley, Jon P. 1989. Tümpisa (Panamint) Shoshone grammar. (University of California Publications in Linguistics, 115.) Berkeley: University of California Press.

Holes, Clive. 2006. Bahraini Arabic. In Versteegh, Kees (ed.), Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics, 241–255. Leiden: Brill.

Lukas, Johannes. 1936. Die Logone-Sprache im Zentralen Sudan: mit beiträgen aus dem Nachlass von Gustav Nachtigal. (Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, XXI:6.) Leipzig: Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft.

McGregor, William. 1993. Gunin/Kwini. (Languages of the World/Materials, 11.) Munich: Lincom Europa.

Souag, Mostafa Lameen. 2010. Grammatical contact in the Sahara: Arabic, Berber, and Songhay in Tabelbala and Siwa. London: University of London. (Doctoral dissertation.)

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0	absent	1098
1	present	1054
?	Not known	238

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Values ⇫

Name	Glottocode	Family	Macroarea	Contributor	Value	Source	Comment